Holder for wood being distilled



A. C. BADGER.

HOLDER FOR wbon BEING DISTILLED. APPLICATION HLED JULY 26,1916.

1,338,667. Patnted' May 4,1920;

INVERTER? i ITEZZVAFTH LiF' E3/\DGER mam by A7 ATF R EYS in a singlestack substantially as long "as ARTHUR C. BADGER, OF "NEWTON,MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 E. B. BADGER & SONS COMPANY, OF BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

HOLDER FOR WOOD BEING DISTILLED.

Application filed July 26, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR C. BADGER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State ofMassachusetts,have invented new and useful Improvements in Holders forWood Being Distilled, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to the art and practice of distilling woodto obtain wood alcohol and-other products, and its ultimate object is toprovide an improved holder for the Wood being distilled, by the use ofwhich the distillation may be carlied on more rapidly and efficiently,and a greater proportion of the volatile constitu-v ents of the wood maybeobtained.

In the practice of Wood distillation as heretofore commercially carriedon, the logs or sticks of wood are placed upon cars and the latter arewheeled into retorts,

which are closed to exclude air and are.

heated to the temperature of destructive distillation of wood; theretorts having proper outlets for withdrawal of the as cons and liquidproducts of such distillation. This process, as heretofore practised,

is ineflicient for two main reasons, first that a long time is requiredfor the complete distillation of the wood, and second that a largeproportion of the products desired to be obtained, particularly woodalcohol, acetone, and similar compounds, by reason of the long period ofheating to which they are subjected, are broken down into worthlesscompounds, namely carbon dioxid and water vapor, and practicall' lost. Ihave discovered that the cause 0 the'waste and inefiiciency of the oldprocess is the mode of stacking the. wood on the cars, the-entire chargecarried by each car being piled the car itself, whereby the pieces atthe ends and at the top of the stack so cover the interior pieces thatpenetration of heat to the interior of'the'stack and escape of vaporstherefrom is much im-peded. Even- I though the pieces ofwood be'roughlbgs or untrimmed splitsections of logs, yet the spaces between thelogsor sections are so small in proportion to the massesofi the piecesthemselves that there is not sufiicient 0 I space for immedlate escape.of the vapors liberated by distillation, and escape of a part of thevapors is entirely preventedby Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May at, 1920 Serial No. 111,534.

The purpose of my invention is to shorten the time required for thedistillation of wood on a commercial scale, while using the methodaccording to which unit holders with their charges of wood are bodilyplaced in and removed from the retorts, and ito reduce ;the waste "fromdestructive distillation of alcoholic vapors to the miniproviding ameans or apparatus for. hold- I mum. ,2, I. have accomplished thisobject-by ing the charge. of wood in the retort constructed .to provideunobstructed "vertical spaces between relatively small subdivisions oftheentirezcharge and access from within such subdivisions to saidspaces, such spaces being near enough together and sufliciently wide topermit immediate escape of the vapors discharged from the wood and rapidpenetration of heat to all parts of the charge. While the principles ofthe invention may be applied in many diverse forms, I prefer to applysuch principlesto a carrieror container having supporting wheels similarto, those of the f ordinary flat car heretofore used, and to provide ,onsuch carrier spacing members arranged to provide pockets for containingthe subdivisions of the entire charge or load, with spaces open throughthe bottom of the car be tween such subdivisions; and also to line thespaces which receive the charge with -walls having 'asufiiciently' opencharacter to, permit- -free passage of, vapor'and liquids,"

while retaining. the charcoal which remains and .disintegrates intosmall pieces in the process.

In the drawings, Figure 1 1s a cross section of a retort showing 1n endelevation .a container or. carrier embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a'plan view. of thecar'rier or container.

Fig."3 is a 'sideelevation of the same. In' the following specificationI will call the carrir'or container for the charge to car, on account ofthe fact that'in its preferred form such carrier is provided with,wheels in the manner of a car; but it is to be understood that inadopting this term of description I have not intended to imply anylimitation in the scope of the invention to a. carrier or containerequipped with Wheels, or otherwise limited except as expressed by theterms of the following claims. 10 represents a retort. As shown in crosssection in Fig. 1 it has a floor, side walls, and a roof completelyinclosing the space in which the charge is contained, and its floorsupports rails 11 on which the wheels of the car may run. I have notattempted to show the end walls or the doors, or other means for closingand sealing the opening through which'the car is passed, or theoutletfor withdrawing vapors and liquid products of distillation, for theseelevments do not form apart of my invention and are well understood inthe art. v

The car may be of any construction as to its body and is shown as havinglongitudi nal sills 12 at the sides, and cross pieces 13. The tractionwheels 14 are mounted in bearing brackets 15 or,conhected in any otherdesired way.

At intervals spaced longitudinal-lyof the car are uprights or posts 16which may be,

and are here shown as being made of angle stock, but may be of any otherconstruction which provides the desired distance between .their oppositefaces or edges. Enough posts are provided in transverse rows on the carto define spaces or pockets 17:. into which logs or sticks of wood 18may be'placed as indicated at the left hand end of the car in Figs. 2and 3. The sides and bottoms of the pockets 17 are lined with woven wirefabric 19, or any other porous fabric, for example, perforated sheetmetal, the pur-. pose ofwhich is to retain the separated and brokenlumps of charcoal remaining at the end of the distilling operation. Theadjacent pockets 17 are separated fromone another by the thickness ofthe posts 16.' "The latter may be considered, therefore, to divide theentire charge on the car into subdivisions of comparatively shortextent. Between posts in each row are spaces 20, shown in Fig. 2, whichpass from the bottom of the car up to the top of the charge and are openat both ends, since thecar bottom is of open construction, as previouslyexplained. It may be noted that the posts'are mounted on longitudinalstringers 21 parallel to the sills of the car bottom andthatthespace'sbetween these stringers are open.

- Itwill'be' apparent that the passages 20 permit free and undisturbedpassage upward of heated gases between the subdivisions 18 of theqcharge, and freely admit from the charge immediately upon liberation andbe withdrawn .from the retort be fore they have had time to bedecomposed by prolonged heating.

' I have found that satisfactory results may be obtained when thewidthof the pockets 17 is approximately 12 inches, and of the passagesbetween the pockets approximately 3 inches, as a vertical stack of woodofapproximately 12 inches width is sufficiently narrow and open topermit immediate release of all volatile products of distillation, andpassages of 3 inches width are sufficiently wide to conduct away all'such volatile products as fast as they are delivered. The figuresgiven, however, areintended to be merely illustrative and not to limitthis feature of. the invention to any specific di-- all parts of thecharge and the vapors de-- livered may escape immediately upon theirliberation and may be immediately withdrawn from the retort.

The practical results of my invention as above describedhave been toreduce the time required for. distillation of a complete charge, byabout twenty per cent, more or less, and to prevent destructivedistillation of the valuable vaporous and gaseous con-- stituents of the"wood, notably wood alcohol and acetone.

With" the use of this apparatus I carry out anew "method of stackingwood for distillation, which broadl stated; consists in arranging thepieces 0 wood in piles orstacks of relatively slight width ascompared tothe whole charge, and leaving open" spaces between the stacks. Suchmethod I also claim as a part of my invention, and I so claim the methodwithout limitation to the specific means shown and hereinbe'fore.described with the help of which the method is carried out.

What I claim and desire to'. secure by Letters Patent is: Y Z

1. A holder for wood undergoing destruc tive distillation, comprisinglateral sills and intermediate longitudinal stringers, forming an openframe,- posts ,erected on saidsills and stringers in-a series of linestransverse to the stringers, and open. work material covering saidbottom frame between the .lines of posts and rising on each side of eachof said lines, the spaces thus inclosed by said open work'materialbeingsaid compartments extending up and down and open throughout and at thetop and a bottom for free passage of gases and vapors,

said compartments having perforated bottoms adapted to support thedisintegrated.

residue of the distilling process, while at the same time permittingpassage of vapors and gases.

3. A holder for woodto be distilled comprising a self-containedstructural unit adapted to be placed in and removed from a distillingretort, having separate compartments for the wood to be distilled andspaces between said compartments open above and below and having accessto said compartments, whereby to permit free escape at the same time.from different parts of the charge of wood carried by said holder, ofvapors produced by distillation.

4. A holder for wood to be distilled comprising a unit structure adaptedto be placed in and removed from the retort and having a plurality ofseparate compartments with intervening open spaces, said compartmentsbeing adapted to receive sections of the charge of wood carried by theholder. and having open work sides and bottoms to permit free passage toand from them of gas and vapors, the meshes of such open work beingrelatively small whereby to re-- tain' fragments of charcoal resultingfrom distillation, the intermediate spaces being open through the bottomof the holder to permit free upward passage of heated gases and vapors.In testimony whereof I have affixed n1 signature.

ARTHUR C. BADGER.

